Melting wires

[vanswey]

I have a 2018 Springdale 24bhwe and my Dometic air conditioner just stopped working. I bought the trailer brand new and have used it for a total if 30 nights.

Everything was running fine then I noticed the breaker at the campsite had tripped. I thot nothing of it and reset the breaker and the trailer worked perfectly again. About 6 hours later the ac stopped working. I checked the campsite breaker and it had not tripped so I opened the fuse panel in the trailer to see if the breaker had tripped which it did not. However I looked at the wires going into the buss and a lot of them looked charred or melted. Any ideas how this would happen? Thank you!!

[CharlesinGA]

Lynnmor wrote:
Everyone loves those detachable cords, (I hate them) but how many check the tightness of the wires behind the inlet? My guess is that nearly all are never checked and that is a connection within the Styrofoam and thin plywood walls. My inlet fell to the ground when I removed it, all screws were completely loose.

I have converted two different trailers to the twist lock cord connector. One was the stupid mouse hole, and the other had a door and a small compartment you were expected to wad the cord up and stuff it into.

Now, I did the work myself and the connections on the back of the inlet and at the panel (and transfer switch on the last one) are all doubly tight. And I check them every year or so depending on usage. Every terminal, wire nut and connection in both the 12vdc and the 120vac system should be checked every year or more depending on how much the trailer or motor home gets used. Its all about rattling along down the road that loosens stuff up.

Charles

[Lynnmor]

Everyone loves those detachable cords, (I hate them) but how many check the tightness of the wires behind the inlet? My guess is that nearly all are never checked and that is a connection within the Styrofoam and thin plywood walls. My inlet fell to the ground when I removed it, all screws were completely loose.

[kearlms]

I agree on the loose wires. I go through all the wires at the panel in my TT at the beginning of the year and tighten them just to make sure this does not happen. Might be a good practice for your preventative maintenance check list each year. Sorry to hear this has happened.

[LVJJJ]

I've found many a loose ground wire over the many years and many trailers behind me. Probably the most important wire of the whole bunch.

[philh]

I replaced my charger converter and discovered the inbound AC hot wire was never tightened. I know RV's are slammed together cheaply, but WTH, you shove the wire in and forget to tighten the screw???

[pianotuna]

GrandpaKip wrote:

I think you are fortunate to have come out of this relatively unscathed.

Having to possibly replace a 30 day old air conditioner is not what I'd call unscathed.

I agree he is lucky the RV did not burn down.

[midnightsadie]

friends did this melt down insurer paid for repair.

[BB_TX]

Agree with all of above. Loose/bad wire connections equals resistance. And resistance and current equals heat. And it doesn't take much resistance to create a lot of heat. Everyone with an RV, new or not, should disconnect from power, throw the battery disconnect switch, and tighten every screw in the circuit breaker panel and fuse panel, AC hot, neutral, ground, and 12 volt. I found about half of mine not tightened correctly.

[time2roll]

vanswey wrote:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a73D8-5pttcWTzY8BrCXgAzcdpEO3Beq/view?usp=drivesdk

Use this to post a photo:

http://photoposting.is-great.net/?i=1

[GrandpaKip]

Definitely get the wires fixed/replaced before using again regardless of the cause.
Is it still under warranty? Might be simpler to handle yourself than having it sit at the dealer.
Once done, I would suggest you install a Progressive Industries EMS.
I think you are fortunate to have come out of this relatively unscathed.

[naturist]

Agree, loose wires and low voltage, either one can cause that sort of damage. That is why the caution above that warranty might be denied unless you can prove installation error, which is going to be tough.

Either way, it is imperative that you get any melted/burned wires replaced, as they are now their very own fire hazard.

Given the horror stories about bad electricity at campgrounds, folks should at the very least have a volt meter to check and preferably monitor the power pedestal. A surge protector or even better, an auto former, is a good idea.

While you are at it, don't forget a water pressure regulator. One campground we stayed at warned everyone at checkin that the city water supplier insisted on delivering water at 150 psi, and not to hook up unless you had a regulator, as that pressure will burst every line in your RV. At another campground we were assigned a site at the bottom of the mountain, with their water supply at the top. The pressure from our hydrant was so high the nozzle-less white hose shot a stream of water a good 50 feet. I dunno what the pressure was, but it was well over the 80 psi RV plumbing is rated for.

[valhalla360]

pianotuna wrote:
loose wires and low voltage at the campsite.

Time to ask about warranty since rv is new.

Have the dealership "discover" the issue.

Ask but expect them to tell you it's operator error unless you can prove it was a faulty installation.

Did you check the voltage? Particularly on hot holiday weekends, it's common to get low voltage as the park is full and everyone is drawing a lot of power to run air/con units.

Yesterday the pedestal we are on went down to 96v. That will burn out electrical systems if you don't take action.

We have an autoformer that boosts the voltage the trailer sees by 10% but even that wasn't enough, so we pulled the generator out and got it back up to 118v until early evening when the voltage was back up.

[Mike134]

pianotuna wrote:
loose wires and low voltage at the campsite.

Time to ask about warranty since rv is new.

Have the dealership "discover" the issue.

Loose wires will overheat

[pianotuna]

loose wires and low voltage at the campsite.

Time to ask about warranty since rv is new.

Have the dealership "discover" the issue.